Is the American Government Aligned with its Mission Statement?

The government of the United States of America has a mission statement.

It's nothing new. It's not one of the "changes" brought forth by President Obama's administration. It's not something that was birthed out of the last decade's mission statement craze.

Actually, the government's mission statement is over 200 years old. You've heard it before:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Perhaps you've never before heard the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution referred to as the mission statement of the U.S. government. But it is. It declares the exact purpose of the Constitution and of the government which the Constitution established. This mission statement hasn't changed in the 222 years since the founding father wrote it.

My question is this: if the laws and programs established by U.S. government officials fail to align with government's mission statement, are those laws and programs considered unconstitutional? And if they are not, shouldn't they be?

If a law, executive order, or judicial ruling is not helping to:

- form a more perfect union
- establish justice
- insure domestic tranquility
- provide for the common defense
- promote the general welfare
- secure the blessings of liberty to current and future generations of American citizens

shouldn't it be overturned?

And if government officials' actions defy this mission statement, should those officials be fired? They would in the business world.

Pre vs. iPhone - part 2

The saga of the Apple iPhone vs. the Palm Pre continues. (To read my first blog post on the matter, click here.) One week after Apple issued the iTunes 8.2.1 update, which blocked non-Apple smartphones (i.e. the Pre) from syncing with iTunes, Palm issued an update of its own. Among other features, the Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables iTunes synchronization. Of course.

I like Apple. It's a good company; it makes good products. Apple rose to fame for good reason - it consistently offered excellent functionality and beautiful, simple design, all for the purpose of providing the best possible user experience.

In personal computing, Apple's graphics remain unparalleled. In digital music, Apple's iPod is to MP3 players as Kleenex is to facial tissues. But in mobile communications, as Anders Bylund of The Motley Fool points out, Apple's iPhone is not the only viable smartphone anymore. The iPhone may or may not remain the best option, but it is certainly no longer the only one.

Mr. Bylund's article of yesterday reminds readers of Apple's famous "1984" Super Bowl commercial, which introduced the Macintosh computer to the world. In the ad, Apple was presented as the young, independent hero who would free the world from the reign of an Orwellian "Big Brother" IBM.

But 25 years later, as Mr. Bylund notes, Apple's recent actions seem more characteristic of "Big Brother" than of the young hero. Bylund has some intriguing speculation into why Apple might be acting this way, but I'll let you read his thoughts on your own.

My only comment is that Apple just needs to stop being so unfriendly. Stop doing things like preventing non-Apple smartphones from syncing with iTunes, and shutting down iPhone apps that use Google Voice. These actions may be within Apple's rights, but they are unbecoming to a company that once prided itself on fighting Big Brother.

So other smartphones are now competitive with the iPhone. So what? Apple knew it would happen. The proper response is not to try to stop the progress of competitors' models - progress which, by the way, attests to the excellence of Apple's products by piggybacking on iTunes and the iPhone. Rather, Apple should stop worrying about competitors and return its focus to pursuing excellence and innovation in function, design, and user experience.

That focus is what made Apple great, and that focus will enable Apple to keep pushing greatness forward. To borrow words from Satchel Paige, don't look back to see what might be gaining on you. Keep pushing forward.

Voice Mail Message = Radio Ad?

Hammerhead Advertising in Hoboken, N.J. is making a bold (read: brazen?) attempt to woo new clients. Apparently the ad agency has been leaving voice mail messages for the CMOs and VPs of Marketing at several hundred target companies. Except they aren't real voice mail messages; they are radio ads for the agency.

Neither are the radio ads disguised to sound like voice mail messages. They sound like a radio commercial that one would hear on the morning commute. You can listen to three versions of the ad here, here, and here.

I don't know about you, but if I were a busy Chief Marketing Officer checking my voice mails in the morning, I think I would be rather annoyed to find someone wasting my time with a radio ad in my voice mailbox. If you want my business, don't be spamming my voice mail. My customers don't want spam from me; I don't want it from you.

According to MediaPost's Media Creativity blog, apparently many of these targeted marketing directors feel the same way. They are disgusted with the move.

But then there are others who actually love the ads. Hammerhead has gotten a 3% response rate from the campaign; many of the respondents are delighted with the ads and excited to enlist Hammerhead in creating their own radio spots.

After listening to the ads, which are admittedly humorous, I could see how some people would appreciate Hammerhead's creativity and initiative enough to want to hire them.

And perhaps generating that "love me or hate me" attitude is good for the brand. Potential clients have to take sides. Hammerhead is defined; they're not just another humdrum agency in the sea of virtually identical ad agencies. They have personality. They are memorable. And even if that memory is distasteful to some, in others it may spark an immediate (and hopefully, lasting) fanhood.

Hopefully the customers of the clients who employ Hammerhead's unusual advertising tactics will feel the same way.

Balkanization of the Web?

In today's MediaPost Search Insider blog, search engine marketing professional Steve Baldwin wrote about what he foresees as the "Balkanization of the Web."

He says that, in order for suppliers of premium web content to stay alive, they will begin to release their information only to those search engines that cut them the best deals. This will result in information being divided among the various search engines, such that certain content is exclusive to specific search engines. Thus users will find themselves pushed to one engine or another, depending on the content they are seeking.

Baldwin thinks that this is the only real method by which search engines can distinguish themselves, since users care about the relevance of search results (which is now basically uniform across search engines), not the bells and whistles of a given search engine.

Now I'm no SEM expert as Mr. Baldwin is, but I must disagree with his prediction. I cannot see how such splitting up of web content is a good idea for any party involved. Nor would it ever begin to happen. Here's why.

One, the providers of premium content to whom Mr. Baldwin refers (i.e. The New York Times) are in no position to bargain for "better deals" from search engines. They are dying. Their readership is declining. They are trying to figure out how to renew their relevance and attract more readers. That is why they engage in SEO and SEM in the first place - so that any and every potential reader can find them in any and every pertinent search on any and every search engine. Creating an artificial scarcity, or threatening to, would be shooting themselves in the foot.

Two, search engines will not want to restrict themselves to only certain types of information. In other industries, concentrating all of one's resources in one product category enables a business to become truly and distinctively excellent in that category. This is not true for search engines. For search engines, there is no competitive advantage to ignoring some topics in order to focus on others. Nor will the search engines be forced to do so by the content providers, because, as noted in reason #1 above, the content providers have no bargaining power.

Three, users won't stand for it. Sharing and finding information on the Web should be free and easy. Users won't want to try several different search engines before they find the information they want - not when they can use Google to find virtually everything. And, as noted in reason #2 above, Google (and every other search engine) has no motive to limit the kinds of information it can find for users; therefore, users will continue to be able to find everything there.

The search engines and the dying providers of premium content will need to find another way to monetize their offerings. Sorry, Mr. Baldwin, but artificially limiting their products won't work. If they want to make money, they should try providing services that consumers perceive as worth paying money for.

MySpace Has Found Itself!

Less than two weeks ago, according to TechCrunch (yes, the same publication now notorious for publishing the stolen Twitter documents - I'm almost loathe to reference them), MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta admitted, in short, that his company was in the middle of an identity crisis.

In an email to employees, Van Natta explained, "Our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub." He also reported that MySpace was taking steps to unify the site and "lay the groundwork to provide more clarity on our brand and business."

He wasn't kidding about taking those steps. MySpace seems to have made short work of that, announcing just this Thursday that MySpace will soon be repositioned as an "entertainment destination" specifically focused on gaming.

With Facebook and Twitter leading the myriad social networking sites, iTunes and Pandora topping the various music portals, and YouTube and Hulu dominating video outlets, online gaming seems like a good space for MySpace. The site already has several games available; it seems reasonable to believe that they could successfully expand that offering to define their entire brand. Perhaps MySpace will distinguish itself among other gaming sites by reconfiguring its "social network" aspect to remarkably facilitate and supplement its new gaming core.

Doubtless there will be much public discussion and debate in the coming days, weeks, and months, about the upcoming changes to MySpace. If minor updates to Facebook's layout can spark hundreds of "Change it back!" groups among Facebook users, it will be interesting to see what outcry arises from a complete brand overhaul of MySpace.

I, for one, am happy for the folks at MySpace, and optimistic about the future of the once-leader of social networks. This new identity may or may not be successful at rebuilding the brand; but without it, MySpace had no chance in the world at holding together. As Someone Wise once said, "a house divided...."

Social Media: The Results Are In!

For organizations still wondering whether social media is worth their time, this information might be encouraging:

MediaPost's Online Media Daily announced yesterday the results of a recent study by social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group on corporate social media usage and revenue growth.

The researchers reviewed and ranked 100 companies on their depth of engagement across 10 social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and others). The five most engaged companies, in order, were Starbucks, Dell, eBay, Google, and Microsoft.

Online Media Daily reports, "According to the study, companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period."

If the results from this study can be extrapolated, it would seem that companies have one of two paths to take:

Path One: your company could spend six or seven figures on running a traditional ad campaign, not including payroll for the marketing and design masterminds behind the campaign. Your ad campaign would send an irrelevant message to potentially millions of disinterested viewers, who would ignore it, and you would fail to truly engage the customers would might really be interested. Your campaign may or may not even help to keep your sales steady in this economy.

Path Two: you could take an equally well-thought-out approach to social media, save those six or seven figures for investment in other areas of your business, and use that payroll to pay for social media masterminds. Your well-done social media campaign would engage customers (interested customers!), give you opportunities to actually converse with them to discover how you can serve them, and enable them to share their excitement about your brand with their friends. And your sales would likely grow.

I'm not suggesting that traditional advertising should be scrapped completely; I think it has its own place and purpose. But to refuse to invest in a virtually free - and shown-to-be-effective - communication tool like social media to reach your customers? That doesn't make much business sense to me.

"If I Ran the Office" - a story in rhyme

"I love my new job," the new graduate said.
"And not just because it is keeping me fed.
I love it because of the things that I do,
Like design ads, write copy, and have meetings, too.

And the people I work with are simply quite grand.
They like to include me in things they have planned.
They're nice to each other, and nice to me, too.
I think that, together, we're quite a great crew!

Unlimited coffee is another great thing
We have in supply while we are working.
I didn't drink it so much before, but, you see,
The coffee we have in our office is free!
And getting more coffee is an excuse I have found
For leaving my desk some, and walking around.

Yes, I love my new job," the young graduate said,
"but every day after work, I am ready for bed.
I think the caffeine crash is zapping my powers,
Or maybe it's the staring at a computer for hours.

Whatever the reason, the caffeine or screen,
The tiredness I feel after five is obscene.
But I've noticed a few little things I would change,
If I ran the office, to make me not feel so strange.

For one, I would insert a full beverage bar
Right next to the coffee; that's not going too far.
With waters, and juices, and nice decaf tea -
Things that won't start a great big caffeine spree.

And instead of just chocolates on each desk in a dish,
Some healthier snacks are some things that I'd wish.
Popcorn, and pretzels, and yummy trail mix,
Dried fruits and Fig Newtons might be just the tricks.

And for a break from the screen, to give one's eyes a rest,
A modest solarium, I think, would be best.
With benches and trees and green, leafy plants,
Closed in from the rain and the wind and the ants.

And to refresh at the times when the work can be draining,
Employees should have something that's quite entertaining.
But it ought to be something that requires some thinking,
Not mindless tv that makes brain cells start shrinking.

There ought to be rooms full of creative fun,
A place you can go when your mind feels undone.
One room full of Legos, for the construction geek;
Folks can work on a sculpture - a new one each week.
One room should be filled with play-dough and paint
So the staff can be artists when they're feeling faint.

And a room full of exercise balls would be neat,
For folks to use them - and not chairs - for their seats.
They could sit there and balance and bounce while they talk;
It's almost as healthy as taking a walk.

And whiteboards with markers would be great fun for all;
That's something to hang on the walls of each hall.
On the whiteboards, co-workers could generate fame
For their riddles, jokes, puzzles, and collaborative games.

Artistic folks, at the bit, would be gnawing
To use the whiteboards to do some quick drawing.
Others could scribble some words in thought bubbles,
Giving speech to cartoons like Flintstone and Rubble.

The whiteboards would also be a wonderful way
To start new traditions, like the "Joke of the Day."
Or to get folks' opinions on serious stuff,
Like which ice cream goes best with marshmallow fluff.

Co-workers could use the whiteboards to compete,
To see who can best do a mind-bending feat,
Like solving, the quickest, an expert Sudoku
Or figuring the speed at which Hindenburg's smoke flew.

These things would be great for when folks need a break
From the quite intense work that makes the mind ache.
'Cause the mind, like the body, sometimes needs a stretch,
Like the fun, friendly dogs that enjoy playing fetch.

Creative spaces like these are what we need, so I say,
To refresh the mind in a few minutes a day.
Quick breaks such as these will produce better work;
It isn't my job that I'm trying to shirk.

These will wake up the brain so much better than coffee,
Or YouTube, or Halo, or bowls full of toffee.

And so," the grad said, "that would be just my plan,
If I were the one through whom the office ran."

Features or Benefits?

In a recent article in MediaPost's Marketing Daily, Best Buy's Shari Ballard (EVP of retail channel management) makes the point that consumers aren't interested in simply acquiring technology products, but in using them to do things. Shari says, "We think one of the reasons we exist on the planet is to help people find connected digital solutions that work with their individual needs."

This is the old "features vs. benefits" question. Customers are not interested in all of the bells and whistles - the features - of a product; they want to know how the product can benefit them and meet their needs.

Customers don't want you to tell them that your brand new, state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner has a super-sonic suction machine and a microfiber carpet brush and a 20-foot hose that compresses to two inches. They want you to tell them that your brand new, state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner will help them clean their homes better, faster, more economically, and with less hassle.

Going beyond the business world, how do you - as a person - benefit others? Maybe you are the best wordsmith who ever lived; your writing communicates exactly and compellingly what you intend to say. That is a gift, a skill, a feature. How are you using that gift to serve the world? Are you helping people to understand one another? Are you inspiring people? Refreshing them? Calling them to action? How are you helping others?

What benefit is your product or service offering to your customers?
What benefit are you, yourself, offering to the world?

You are already strong and beautiful and talented and smart and important and loved; you don't need to prove that. You were created to make the world better; don't just show off your features.

Responding to Loss Aversion

One interesting chapter in Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin (no, not that one), and Robert Cialdini, talks about the law of loss aversion. That is, that human beings are more sensitive to potential losses than to potential gains.

In other words, people are more motivated to avoid losing what they have than they are to try gaining something more.

An example used by Cialdini, et. al. is that of New Coke. In the 1980's, Coca-Cola discovered that people liked the sweeter taste of Pepsi than they did the taste of Coke. So Coca-Cola developed a new formula - New Coke - and, like good marketers, ran taste tests. Folks liked the taste of New Coke better than the taste of the Old Coke (and when they were told which was which, an extra 6 percent of testers liked the New Coke better than when they tested blind).

So Coca-Cola yanked the old Coke from the shelves, and released New Coke.

The result? Disaster. Angry consumers. Public outcry. (Even more so than when Facebook updates its look periodically.) Coca-Cola soon got rid of the New Coke and returned the original formula to the stores.

Why did this happen? Because although people may have liked the New Coke, they would not take it at the expense of the Old Coke they knew and loved.

Has this happened to you as a consumer? You discover a favorite breakfast cereal, or ice cream shop, or hair care product, and the manufacturer discontinues it? Oh, the hurt and agony!

Why are humans wired this way? Is it a generally positive desire for life? - we don't want anything to "die" or be suddenly and permanently no longer accessible to us? Or is it a foolish and selfish impulse? Or is it neutral?

And how should marketers respond to this? They seem to already make use of this principle when they announce specials like, "Limited Time Only!" or "Don't Miss This Opportunity!" Those announcements seem like a reasonable thing to do. Warn your customers if something is about to become scarce or unavailable, so that they can get it while they can.

(But don't be manipulative with it. I remember some distinct instances of price-gouging on things like gasoline and plywood during hurricane season in Florida. It's not cool. Don't be a jerk. Customers don't like it.)

Are there other proper responses to the law of aversion? Like reserving one last batch of your discontinued product, and selling it to discount stores where your most fanatically loss-averse customers can still find it for a little while? Or offering the last batch only to your most loyal - and loss-averse - fans (you know - the ones you're supposed to be building relationships with through your social media platforms)?

How can your company respond to the law of loss aversion in a way that benefits both yourself and your customers?

Free Movie Tickets? Where?!?

Sprint sure is doing some interesting things to promote the new Palm Pre. First there were the series of commercials for Sprint's Now Network ("the first wireless 4G network"); I first saw these spots in May at my local movie theater.

The Now Network commercials were paired with home page takeovers on sites like Yahoo, YouTube, and AOL.

Next came the "Flow" commercials for the Palm Pre itself; these commercials have been deemed "creepy" by my new favorite mobile marketing blogger, Steve Smith.

Then there is the Palm Pre website which reflects the setting of the "Flow" commercial, and which invites visitors to, among other things, "Experience the Pre ad campaign" (italics mine).

Additionally, when a person turns on the Palm Pre for the first time, they see another beautifully done video in the same earthy, "flowy" feel as the television ads.

And now Sprint has launched the "r8 it" campaign, which gives participating movie-goers in a chance to win a year's supply of free movie tickets when they rate the movies they see. Viewers can rate the movies and view poll results on the National CineMedia website NCM.com, or, better yet, via the mobile "r8 it" app.

Sprint is also partnering with ScreenVision to install interactive kiosks in 500 movie theaters across the nation. Sprint subscribers can use the kiosks to download mobile coupons for the concession stand.

So, is this intense marketing effort working?

Well, for one thing, Media Intelligencer reports that the award-winning integrated campaign was successful in sparking early interest in the Pre. According to comScore, search terms related to the Pre doubled to 216,000 during the week of the YouTube takeover campaign. That number dropped after the release of the iPhone 3G S, but rebounded in the two weeks after the Pre was released.

Another clue is the Apple iTunes 8.2.1 update, which prevents non-Apple smartphones from synchronizing with iTunes. The Palm Pre's much-anticipated ability to sync with iTunes lasted for little more than one month before Apple blocked it. Is Apple nervous about the new iPhone competitor? Or just annoyed?

It will be interesting to see how the Palm Pre fares in the smartphone market. If it succeeds as a viable iPhone rival, perhaps Sprint's extensive campaign(s) will have had something to do with it.

Adding Scientists to Your Advertising Staff?

Here's an interesting Human Resources experiment: Take an advertising agency. Add 12 people, with or without college degrees or work experience, from around the globe, from very different non-advertising disciplines (the arts, science, technology...). Give them six to nine months to work together on creative problem-solving for selected client accounts. See what happens.

No, it's not a new reality TV show. It's a project called Platform, by Wieden + Kennedy London. W+K is searching for curious, creative, adventuresome, and observant individuals from across disciplines to expand the agency's long-term talent pool. Participants are not guaranteed a job at the end of the program, but potential is there. After his involvement in W+Kside, an earlier, smaller version of Platform, one product designer received a job offer from W+K eighteen months later.

To apply for the project, which launches September 9, interested parties must submit (1) their solution to a problem that bothers them (with implementation documented via Flickr photos), and (2) a video bio, less than three minutes long, posted to YouTube.

I'm impressed with this bold and brave move toward cross-disciplinary integration on the part of Wieden + Kennedy. Collaborating across disciplines is a wise choice in nearly any field, I think. Consider the variety of expertise required to create something as "simple" as a good iPhone application, for example: you need graphic designers, computer programmers, information systems specialists, communications experts, product testers, writers, marketing researchers, marketing communications specialists, sound designers, and perhaps some physicists, depending on what you're creating.

Pulling in all of these people into one advertising agency is something new and different, though. It's risky. As Platform's recruiting website asks, "Are you ready to embrace failure?" But with great risk is the potential for great return. The people who will apply (and whom W+K will select) for the program are people who are creative, innovative, bold, risk-taking, problem-solvers - just the kind of people needed at an ad agency that wants to be excellent in innovation and service to clients and customers.

In the words of Jim Collins from his book Good to Great, W+K is looking to get the right people on the bus. Good for them. Maybe someday soon this will become the standard operating procedure for hiring at the top innovative companies of the world.

Mobile App Idea #1: Gas Station Locator

From time to time, I think of ideas for marketable new products or services. My dear readers, I would like to share some of these ideas with you. If you find one of my ideas to be absolutely brilliant, so brilliant that you want to actually develop it, please do so. Unless otherwise noted, I will demand no royalties for my ideas.

However, if I conceived an idea, I might have further insights on how to actually implement it. You may want to pick my brain. Or at least send me a thank-you note for inspiring your profitable new invention. Just a thought.

Allow me to share with you an idea that came to me today for a new mobile phone application: a Gas Station Locator.

Running out of gasoline can be a rather inconvenient experience. Not that this has ever happened to me, of course; this is just what I hear.

Someone (maybe a fuel company? maybe AAA?) should develop a mobile phone application that uses the phone's GPS to locate the nearest gas stations. The app could be geo-visual, like the Nearest Tube application for the London Underground (see the YouTube video below).



The Gas Station Locator app (perhaps it could be called "Fuel Up!") could generate bubbles containing relevant information for each gas station - items like the station name, distance, estimated driving time till arrival, gas prices, sales and specials, availability of restrooms, and customer ratings. Maybe the application could even communicate with the vehicle's computer, to report how much further one can drive before running out of gas. Perhaps the driver could set a minimum gas level (something like "3 gallons", or "1/4-tank"), below which the application would automatically open and start locating nearby gas stations.

But drivers staring at cell phones kill people, you say.

The app should be completely audio-driven and voice-activated, so that the driver does not even need to look at the phone. The driver could ask the application to audibly list the stations in order of distance, or gas price. The app could even give spoken, turn-by-turn driving directions to the selected gas station.

Do you think drivers would like an app like this one? Do you know how to build it? How to coordinate all of that information? You are welcome to develop it with my blessing - you might be nice and let yours truly download it for free, though.

Marketing a Cause: Mandela Day

On July 18, in honor of the 91st birthday of the social activist and former South African president, the Nelson Mandela Foundation is hosting Mandela Day. The day itself will feature a grand concert in New York City's Radio City Music Hall, with performances by folks like Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Josh Groban, Aretha Franklin, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Emmanuel Jal, and more. But the goal of Mandela Day is not so much a one-day celebration of a great man, but a re-commitment of people around the world to follow Mr. Mandela's lead by making a difference in their own communities.

To spread word about the event, the Nelson Mandela Foundation (with the help of ad agency Gotham - part of Interpublic Group) has launched a viral campaign. What a better way to inspire people toward a cause than to get passionate individuals to spread the fire to their friends?

TV, print, online, and web ads are being used to point people to the mandeladay.com website, where they can learn about Mandela Day, include themselves in a Mandela Day video, join the Imprint Wall (where they post their plans for serving their communities), read the Mandela Day blog, follow @MandelaDay on Twitter, join the Mandela Day fan page on Facebook, see Flickr photos of the Mandela Day art installation in NYC Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall, and watch videos of celebrity support of the event. (Celebrities currently featured include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, and more.)

I have not yet seen whether the Nelson Mandela Foundation has done much to take Mandela Day mobile, other than allowing people to submit messages to the Imprint Wall via text message. Are there any iPhone apps? A mobile site? Could the Foundation develop a mobile e-card from the Imprint Wall, allowing folks to send an image of their own Imprint to friends?

People can use their phones to record their own Mandela Day videos; I don't know how streamlined it is to upload the video to the Mandela Day site from a phone.

I was surprised that I could not find a link to the Mandela Day YouTube channel on the Mandela Day website; the channel features quite a few videos about the event (with some starring various celebrities).

I do hope that these interactive strategies succeed in helping word about the event to go viral. And I hope that Mandela Day inspires people to make the difference of which they are truly capable.

A Note About the Blog

Originally I had stated that I would be using this blog to share thoughts on a variety of topics - including God, politics, marketing, life, and others. You may have noticed, however, that nearly all of my blog posts have been about marketing. All except three, as a matter of fact.

Since this blog has become a forum for marketing discussions specifically, it is time for me to be honest and refer to it as such. My writing has not changed, but the name of my blog has.

Thank you for being readers of and participants in Haley's Marketing Blog.

--Haley

What's Your Story?

Yesterday in my blog I echoed Steve Smith in saying that your landing page should be a launch pad to your brand's story.

So, what is your story?

For TOMS shoes, the story is that for every pair of shoes purchased, they give a pair to a needy child.

For Whole Foods, the story is that they care for the health of people and their environment by providing the highest quality natural and organic food products.

For Southwest Airlines, the story is that they work to give travelers the lowest possible fares and the best possible customer service.

For Apple, the story is that they provide people with a high-quality personal computing, digital music, and mobile communication experience that is intuitive, innovative, and beautiful.

For Progressive, the story is that they provide fast, fair, and better insurance services to cost-conscious customers.

For Smuckers, the story is that they bring families together around the breakfast table and dessert bar.

What's your story? What is your brand about? Why does your company exist? How do you bring meaning to the world? How do you make the world better? What's the point?

That is what you must know before you can communicate your story to the world you're trying to serve.

Landing Page or Launch Pad?

At the end of his Mobile Insider blog post today, Steve Smith posed a question that bears repeating:

"Why is a 'landing page' a 'landing page?' Shouldn't it be a launch pad to a [story]? Why would you want to have your audience lean back to watch a clip, when they could lean in to interact with a visual story?"

Well put, Steve. Intuitively, we know that a website landing page is not meant to be the final resting place of the viewer. It is meant to draw the viewer into your website. A landing page is akin to the cover of a book, or the trailer of a movie. It attracts attention, gives a preview of the content, and draws the viewer in. A landing page should do three things:

• intrigue the viewer


• inspire curiosity


• generate involvement

Intrigue the viewer:
A landing page should convey the personality and purpose of the brand in a creative way - without using gratuitous, flashy animation and sound. As the adage says, "form follows function." A landing page can feature a cool Flash animation, but not simply for the sake of having a cool Flash animation. Design for the sake of the viewer, not for the sake of the designer's ego. Be tasteful. If you must use sound, include a sound on/off button; don't build something that takes forever to load; create your design with a purpose that serves the viewer and makes him want to continue.

Inspire curiosity:
A landing page should give the viewer a hint of what on the site is interesting and relevant to him. The viewer wants to know why it is worth his time to continue to browse your site. So convey information about "what's inside". And allow some mystery to remain - make your viewer want to continue through your site to "find out more."

Generate involvement:
Make your landing page interactive (as the rest of your site should be). Help the viewer to customize his experience on your site. Show him where he can explore relevant (not gratuitous, remember) videos, or photo albums, or virtual tours on your site. If you use animation, let the viewer control what he sees; use mouseovers, hotspots - something to let him click and direct and see more. Allow the user to comment on something, or build a sample, or take a poll. Make him feel like he is engaged with the brand, and make him want to continue that active relationship.

Let your landing page be a launch pad to your brand's story.

Normal vs. Boring: Toshiba's New Campaign

Have you heard the latest in reality tv commercials?

Toshiba just launched a campaign that pits six citizens of Normal, Illinois, against six citizens of Boring, Oregon. After being selected from a series of casting calls, the twelve contestants received brand new Toshiba laptops. Now they have one month to break free from "normal" and "boring" and be innovative - in using those laptops to increase community activism in their respective towns. The team that makes the best use of the laptops will win $15,000 worth of Toshiba laptops for the local school district.

A film crew from New York's P-13 Productions is documenting the progress of the contestants. On July 27, videos of the competition will be posted on MySpace, and viewers will vote for the winning team.

This is beautiful picture of interactive marketing meets corporate social marketing.

Residents of two towns with unassuming names get to participate in a one-month reality tv show requiring an innovative use of technology to help their communities. People around the world get to participate online in watching the videos and choosing the winner. The students of a school district get a shot at improved education facilitated by new technology. And Toshiba gets people interested in the brand and aware of Toshiba's commitment to corporate social responsibility.

A wise man I know once told me, "A good deal isn't a good deal unless it's a good deal for both parties." Toshiba has created a good deal.

Online Video Advertising that Works?

Here's a new approach to online video advertising.

VideoClix.tv is a video sharing site that seems to have found a workable solution to the monetization dilemma plaguing YouTube. While YouTube is experimenting with choose-your-own pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll "promoted video" ads, VideoClix steers away from the "tv commercial" approach altogether.

Instead, VideoClix uses its own Smartrack technology to add dynamic (moving) hotspots to the uploaded video. The hotspots function rather like "tags" on Facebook photos; as the viewer rolls the mouse over images in the streaming video, labels appear. The viewer can click on a labeled hotspot to see a relevant advertisement appear in a sidebar to the right of the video screen. If interested, the viewer can then click on the advertisement to open the advertiser's website in a new browser window.

For example, in a video of Maui honeymoon spots by The Knot wedding planning website, hotspots connect to ads for the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, The Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, National Geographic, and The Knot.

Although VideoClix seems to be slow in gaining contributors (due in part, I suspect, to their business model - with their $5,000/year license fee, they are seeking corporate- and network-created content, not customer-created), I think this advertising model is a winner. Viewers are happy, because they see ads only if they are interested in the material, and the ads do not interrupt the video. Advertisers are happy, because their ads are reaching the customers who are actually interested in their products and services. It's a win-win (as any good business deal should be).

I hope that the VideoClix method catches on. Perhaps if waiting for more contributors isn't working, VideoClix should license their technology to YouTube instead.

Happy Independence Day

In honor of the birth of my country, of the freedoms which our founding fathers proscribed for us, and of the men and women throughout history who have died to preserve those freedoms, I would like to share this, my favorite Super Bowl commercial of all time. (My gratitude to Anheuser-Busch and to the person who posted this video on YouTube.)



This commercial aired during Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. Only recently did I have the honor of participating in a similar welcoming home of American troops as they disembarked in the DFW airport. It thrilled my heart to see the number of people who stood and applauded - regardless of personal views on Operation Iraqi Freedom and the present and former presidential administrations - as these servicemen and women walked by.

It is always an honorable thing to give thanks where thanks is due.

I thank God for orchestrating events so that there was brought forth upon this continent a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. I thank God for showing mercy to our nation, even when we have trampled on the avowedly inalienable rights of some - the American Indians, the enslaved, the unborn.... I thank God for the men and women who have, for their allotted time, stepped into terribly difficult positions of leadership in our government. I thank God for the men and women who have risen in the midst of fierce opposition to declare to our country what is right and true. I thank God for the men and women who fight every day - with arms, with words, with actions - to protect the liberty of American citizens and of people around the world. I thank God for men and women who love my country enough to want to make it better.

"Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends."

May God continue to bless America. And may America bless God.

Happy Fourth of July.

BMW Redefines "Art"

I am writing from a seat in Terminal A of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and I can't resist commenting on an advertisement I passed by as I walked to my gate.

The piece to which I'm referring is an advertisement for the BMW Z4 Roadster, part of BMW's Expression of Joy campaign. The ad features a white background streaked with tire tracks made in brilliant reds, blues, and greens. In the foreground sits a sleek blue Z4. The tagline says, "Not all artists are depressed."

This ad from the same campaign should give you an idea of the ad I'm describing:


I love it. I want to show this ad to my dad, because it fits him perfectly. Male, 45-55 years old, married with some children still at home, from a modest family background in farm country, intelligent, who gained relative affluence through hard work, frugality, and smart financial decisions, and moved to a more cultured life on the Florida beaches. He loves art, architecture, and sports cars, and could potentially convince my mother (his wife) to allow him to purchase a new toy with his "mad money", since he doesn't splurge very often. And he doesn't believe that artists should be starving. Or depressed.

If BMW's market research tells them that the people most likely to buy their Z4 Roadsters are men like my dad, I'd say they did this ad campaign just right.

Kid-Created Content

Thanks to Creativity Online, today I learned about a new venture into customer-created content by Penguin Books publishers. At their site wemakestories.com, Penguin Books enables kids to write stories for virtual "publication" in animated book form on the site, as well as print and share their stories, view others' stories, customize old classics (Mad Libs-style), and create audiobooks, treasure maps, pop-up books, comics, and more.

What a fun thing! Especially for kids who love to write. And kids who write nearly always love to read, too, making them the perfect kids for Penguin Books to reach! And parents have to love a fun website that enables kids to use their imaginations beyond figuring out how to best decimate the bad guy.

Could other companies create similar sites for their customers? Sure. Nike or Adidas could launch a site that lets kids (or adults, too) to create virtual sneakers, experimenting with different materials (rubber, wood, cloth, bamboo, metal...), designs, and colors, to see which ones enable their character to jump higher, run farther, etc. Coke or Pepsi could make a site that allows visitors to mix virtual soft drinks and send them to friends (via email or Facebook). GM or Ford could create a site that allows people to design and "drive" virtual cars. The possibilities are endless.

One thing that surprised me about the Penguin Books site is that Penguin Books is charging parents a $10 membership fee for kids to use the site. It seems that the membership fee is a one-time deal (so members will forever have access to the site), but I question the publisher's reasoning in creating this barrier to entry. With so many free games online, why risk turning kids and parents away from this great (and almost free to Penguin Books) marketing opportunity?

Perhaps Penguin Books believes that the $10 membership fee will increase the value of the site in the eyes of the customer. We'll see if they're right.